§ Mr. GerrardTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the cost of retesting the 25,000 stored samples which had previously been tested for HIV using the faulty Abbot kit; and who will be responsible for meeting this cost. [27151]
§ Mr. HoramIt is too early to say yet what the costs of the retesting exercise are likely to have been but national health service trusts have been asked to keep a record of their costs and the Department is liaising with the NHS and public health laboratory service on this. Abbott Laboratories Ltd. has stated that it will pay the cost of retesting.